OAKLAND — Mayor Jean Quan was in a car collision Sunday evening after a 36-year-old Oakland woman ran a red light and hit the left rear of a city vehicle Quan was driving, police said.
Quan was alone in the car heading from one church event to another and was not injured, said Quan’s spokesman Sean Maher.
The woman, who did not give her name, said both she and a 14-year-old boy in the car with her were in pain and headed to hospitals to be examined.
Police said the mayor was driving north on Market Street and at the intersection of 26th Street when the other car, a 2008 Nissan Altima, ran through a red light and into the left rear quarter panel of the vehicle Quan was driving, a newer model Lexus SUV leased to the city. The collision occurred about 5:30 p.m.
But Margarett Randel, 22, tells a different story. She said she was walking to a store near her home at 26th and Market Street and saw Quan looking down as she ran the red light.
“I was outside when it happened. I seen the whole thing,” said Randel. “Mayor Quan passed right through the red light. She wasn’t looking where she was going. She was looking down.”
Randel did not say if she believed Quan was using a cellphone at the time.
Randel said Quan stopped and waited for police and then left the scene.
Maher referred questions about how the collision occurred to the police but said Quan was not talking or texting when the collision occurred.
Last Sunday, a picture emerged of what appeared to be Quan texting and driving. A day later, another picture made the rounds on social media of Quan holding a cellphone to her ear while driving, which is illegal under state law.
Quan told reporters she was looking for an address, which she believed to be allowed under the state law. A California Highway Patrol spokesman said it is not.
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed to this story. Follow Kristin J. Bender at Twitter.com/kjbender.
